Down To Nothing

This is the first interview I have done. I interviewed the singer, David, when they played in Kingston in May. Considering Down to Nothing are a big, touring band in hardcore now and I had never done anything like this it was pretty cool for David to still take the time to talk to me.






This is the first time you've been back to play in Europe since "The Most" came out. How have people taken to the songs off that record?

Surprisingly good. Usually it takes a while for a new record to get out and for people to get into it. So far on this European tour, those songs have been some of our best, craziest songs. So it's been cool.

I was wondering how you feel about touring Europe and playing "Home Sweet Home" which kids always seem to love, but kids in the UK or Germany have no idea what Richmond is like. Do you find it weird or hard to understand why they can go off to that?

My friends back home always say the same thing. They're like "I see videos of you guys playing "home sweet home" in somewhere like Germany, what's that like?" and it's not really weird, it's kind of a good feeling, a bunch of people singing along about my city so it's cool. There are people in Germany and Poland who don't even speak that great English and they know it word for word, more than people back home do, more than people in my band do!

One of the first things I noticed after listening to "The Most" was how heavy the riffs were and a kind of late 80s influence. Was that something you intended to do with the record or did it just come out naturally with the song writing process?



Yeah it just came out naturally I guess. If you listen to Save it for the Birds, Splitting Headache after that and all of the splits you can kind of tell it gets heavier. We hadn't released anything for a while so we just started writing songs and it came out like that which was cool.

I also noticed that the lyrical content of the songs was a bit more varied. There are songs like "Serve and Neglect" which address police corruption and "No Faith" about religion. For you personally was that something you wanted to do, address a whole number of ideas?

Not really they're just things I'd been wanting to sing about. When I had the songs to write them to it's just what came out.

There's also songs on the record like "Along for the Ride" and "Well Deserved" which are more about hardcore today. It seemed like you were frustrated at some parts of the hardcore scene. What is it that can get you down about the scene?

"Along for the Ride" and "More Deserved" I guess are pretty similar. "Along for the Ride" , when I say that line about riding coattails it's about so many bands nowadays that don't work for anything. We fucking got shitted on so much when we were younger and worked our asses off to get a show and now there's these bands, we didn't have myspace and all that stupid shit either, so all these bands find your tour dates online and then just come to all the shows pretty much. It's like, earn your shows you know? Like every other fucking hardworking band has done. Same with "Well Deserved" that's about how any bands now can just record a demo, put it on myspace and then they're the new shit. A year and a half later none of them even go to shows anymore, they're done with hardcore. That's what that songs about.

I guess you guys are one of the more renowned straight-edge bands around today. Nowadays there's so many different views about what straight edge is and what it entails. There's people with a really hard-line view and people with the complete opposite ideas. Do some of those different views frustrate you as well?

Yeah definitely. I mean, I've been at parties before and they'll offer me a beer, "yo can I get you a drink?" and I'll be like "no, no thanks I don't drink". They keep asking again, "You wanna go smoke?". I'll be like "No it's cool". They'll say "Oh are you straight-edge or something?" When I say yeah they'll be like "Oh so your gonna come and fucking beat me up now?". I'm like "No I'm just chilling, talking to you". You know? There's people that give it a bad name like that, it sucks that violence got so associated with it. It's embarrassing somebody's gonna think of me as some fucking dumbass. Just because I don't want to do drugs doesn't mean I want to fucking beat up somebody or carry brass knuckles. So that shit sucks. It's so stupid, you're trying to be nice, it's how society is, people offer you drinks, people drink. It's fine if you don't want to do it you just have to be like "no thanks" not "no I'm fucking straight edge, fuck you!" That shits dumb, fucking grow up.

"The Most" was your second release on Revelation Records, home to legendary bands such as Judge, Inside Out and Gorilla Biscuits. Do you want to see yourself or could you see yourself having the same influence as them in ten years or so?

I would love to. Who knows if we would, that'd be crazy. I don't wanna think about it, I'll just try and do my thing. I still can't believe we're on Rev. It's not even that cool, but it is you know? In reality, it's not that cool of a label to be on but at the same time: Warzone, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits. It's sweet. That'd be cool. Who knows?




So what have you been listening to this tour, anything in particular?

The new No Use for a Name record, we listen to that every day. New Trapped Under Ice. Lately I just got into Lilly Allen, I'm a little late but I love it.Are they any other bands around now who people might not have heard of that you'd suggest to check out?Yeah, check out a band called Swamp Thing, they're from Richmond. They're young kids on 6131 records. 50 Lions from Australia. Cruel hand from Maine, I know they were just here. There's a bunch of good bands now.

http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lm15c3BhY2UuY29tL2Rvd250b25vdGhpbmc=